projects and pups

in the midst of all of this baby prep, i received a letterpress printing request! i told my client that i was due soon, and thankfully, the news didn't scare her off. after all of the logistics were figured out, i'm ready to start working on her project. i'm so excited and am looking forward to sharing the results - although it might be a little while :)

i'm also mulling around another project - some letterpress birth announcements for the kiddo. i have a general idea of the design, but haven't committed it to plates yet since we won't know the details til after the baby is born (obviously).

the pups are being cling-ons. i think mia is more clingy than normal. i wonder if she can sense what's happening. i kinda doubt it. i do think that they are going to adore the baby. especially once the kiddo starts eating solid foods. i'm sure we won't need to buy napkins - the dogs will take care of vacuuming food bits.

hearts galore

in case you don't know, i love hearts. it's my shape of choice. when i was growing up, my best friend & i signed notes with a heart (me) or a sun (her). we collected things with our "signs". she even got a sun tattoo (don't worry mom, i'm still tattoo free.)

to this day, i still love hearts. (and hello kitty, but that's for another post.) i was perusing etsy and found a few cute cards & prints by letterpress printers. enjoy:

#1 jack russell puppy valentine's card by drenculture

#2 heart strings art print by sweetharvey

#3 robot heart card by twinravenspress

#4 heart of wheels card by tellapress

#5 robot love letter card by sweetharvey

#6 love notes by aripress

recipe cards

i'm finally getting around to posting some pictures of the recipe cards i printed for the museum show - i apologize for the quality of the photos. there really isn't any time i can take pictures in daylight, since we are only getting a few hours of sun right now.

i created two designs: baking & utensils, and printed on four colors (per set) of french paper. the results were wonderful & quite popular at the show!

i also custom made the boxes and sold the cards & box as a set.

printing the cards ended up being great timing on my part since i ended up using extras for some recipes i came across for the holidays.

tiny showcase of awesome

thanks to designlovefest, i was introduced to tiny showcase - the creators wanted a venue for artists to make some money with smaller works of art & for customers to purchase affordable pieces. each week, they pick a new tiny piece of art & have a limited edition of prints made.


cool things about tiny showcase:
1) there's a letterpress section!!
2) a percentage of each sale goes towards the artist's favorite charity

check out some of the gorgeous work:

"Tiny Boat on a Tiny Bottle" by sol linero

"August Migration" by tyler stout


"Inside Trip" by the little friends of printmaking

and my favorite piece (seen on designlovefest too):
"Homage to the Stamp" by Gavin Potenza

be sure to click on each image to see the additional shots of the prints - the pics really capture the beauty & depth of letterpress printing.

and since i received my 60+ pounds of french paper & my letterpress plates yesterday, i'll be cranking out some prints myself tonight! pictures to come...

postcards

so my friend annie of annie's arts & follies mentioned this cool postcard site called postcrossing. if you decide to participate, you send out some cards & receive cards from all over the world. basically, its way better than getting a ton of bills in your mailbox.

since i read about this project, annie inspired me to work on my first postcard design:

i haven't decided what color paper to print on or what color ink to use yet...i am LOVING designing for letterpress!

baking recipe cards

i finished up the files for the next recipe cards! i would love to get one more thing done before i send the files off to the polymer plate makers. here's the french paper colors i ordered:

the recipe cards will come in packs of 8, with 2 cards in each color.

here's the front:

and here's the back:

and once again, the blue border is not part of the design, just to make the card stand out :) what do you think?

learning curve...

i've been working on a few new projects...an additional recipe card design, a postcard design, and a custom gift card for an alaskan store. all three will hopefully be finished in the next couple of days so i can order some letterpress plates.

the custom gift card request was from a lovely lady who was at the bad girls of the north show. she really liked the kitchen cards & wanted me to create some cards for her shop to be used as gift certificates for the upcoming holidays. i drew a design for her shop with pots, pans, tea pots & some tea accessories. i'm just waiting on her shop logo to get it finished up. she also wanted the cards printed on bright paper (my favorite!) so i place an order for some cheerful colors.

i've found that i've become much more comfortable with offering custom work to customers at shows. i used to be worried..."what if i can't do it? what if they don't like it? what if...." but i've learned a couple of things:

1) get as many details & specifics about the project as possible. a lot of people have told me "do whatever you want"....but i hesitate because i know our tastes aren't the same. so if i can at least get a direction, a color scheme, even dislikes, that helps
2) i've always gotten a project done. even when i'm stressed to the max. and am feeling unsure of my abilities. and am trying something new. i've been able to find a way, find resources, & create some pretty cool things.

once i have the designs for the cards done, i'll show you :)

Bad Girls of the North show!

what a crazy busy weekend! the bad girls of the north show was a major success :) it was a lot of fun. i had the chance to see many familiar faces, artists & customers. friday night was packed - it looked like everyone really enjoyed themselves. one of the coolest things about this particular show is that on friday night, drinks & appetizers are offered to customers.

and here's what you've been waiting for - pics of the show!

my table

linoleum block printed cards

new pamphlet books - featuring vito :)

letterpress printed kitchen cards

letterpress kitchen & snowman cards

address books & japanese stab binding books

i always learn so much from every show and this one was no exception. i have a lot of new ideas for projects in addition to some things i'm planning to debut at the museum show in a few weeks. i took sunday off to relax and catch up on some much needed sleep, but i'll be hitting the ground running to have everything ready for the next show.

kitchen cards!

there was a bit of a setback last week - i ordered paper to print this new set of cards & ups accidentally sent my order to canada. once the error was figured out, it had to clear customs to get back into the US. i contacted french paper and received an immediate response - they sent out a new box to me next day air. i am SO impressed with their customer service. and because they responded so quickly, i was able to print my cards for the show this weekend!

here's some pics of the printing:

there are five different designs on five different colors of paper

i used a mixture of silver & black ink - so there is a bit of sheen in the prints. the darkness of the ink really shows off the detail of the drawings.

my shop puppy :)

saved the best color for last

helper puppies - they were quality assurance for the day

this was a marathon printing day - 550 cards in over 5 hours. my arm is still a little sore...but its a huge relief to have them printed. i'm thrilled with the results and will post more once they are cut down and ready to sell!

recipe cards

since i've been cooking a bit lately, i thought "i should print some recipe cards!" i put together a card design - it'll be double sided & printed on some bright fun colors (yet to be determined). i'm planning on selling them in sets of 10.

here's the front:

and the back:

(the blue border was added to make the white picture stand out - it won't be part of the print)

so what do you think?

snowman card set

the new winter card set is finally done! these snowmen started as doodles and now they are gorgeous letterpress cards. check them out:

these 2 color cards were printed on french pop-tone paper in berrylicious.

the first color is a background of white snowflakes (hard to see in the pictures)

...and the second color is a soft blue.

they are folded 4 bar (3 1/2" x 4 7/8") notecards...

...blank inside, and come with a kraft paper envelope.

soooo who wants to buy a set? :) i hope you enjoyed them! i will be busy working on books & other goods for the shows this weekend...what will you be up to?

sneak peek

sorry for the late post! today (like everyday, it seems) has been busy...

i worked on a custom letterpress order for my friend christine - she wanted some thank you notecards printed with a blind (no ink) impression. i tested this by printing one page with no ink at all - the results weren't great. her logo & thank you were difficult to see...so i mixed up some white ink with a tiny touch of silver.

printing with this ink gave the impression more definition without looking like i used any ink. cool, huh?

the notecards are currently drying...once i get them all cut down & ready to mail, i'll show you the final results!

business cards!

the new business cards are done drying & ready to cut!

what do you think? i'm really happy with how they turned out and am glad i printed on the extra cardstock i saved from previous cards. sooooo anyone out there want to order some custom letterpress cards from me? :)

i was busy printing the new holiday cards over the weekend and am SO happy with the results! once they are dry, i'll take some pictures to show you all.

i've also been working on making books and thought i had about 60 left to make...but i was wrong. it's more like 90. plus jewelry boxes & a couple of photo album box sets. i'm hoping to get all of the book covers glued this week so i can focus on printing and binding for the next two weeks...but that's a stretch. especially since i still have to go to my day job. but on the bright side, i get to drink more coffee!!

business card printing

my press (which i've decided to name chester, after years of deliberation) had his maiden press run at his new home (the garage). chester & i had a couple of trying moments...but worked through them & basically rocked printing business cards. here's some (iphone) pics..

i originally planned to print only on stardream cover in aquamarine

but found some other stardream paper in vista (top) & aqua lagoon (middle) from previous business card press runs and decided to print them all

here's the first run in blue - i chose a brighter blue than i originally planned..

i had the printing plates made by boxcar press - who have awesome support & are very helpful

the stack of paper ready to go for press run 2

oooo pretty plum purple...

sweet!

printing went very well and i really enjoyed being able to print in our garage. i'm super excited about the new business cards and will post pictures once they are cut. they will take a few days to dry. i was also happy with how the ink colors came out on the three papers i used.

today is the big day...macbook pro is coming!

more cards...

uploaded all of the files for the next couple of sets of letterpress cards! my plates should be here next week. for the snowman cards, i'm going to try out a new paper, pop-tone by french paper in berrylicious:


and i ordered some of their speckletone envelopes in kraft for the set:


check out the other papers on french paper - it's a fun site to browse!

if i like the results of printing on this french paper, then i'll order more for this kitchen set. here's a sneak peek:

so much to do, so little time...i'm thinking i should stop sleeping and drink more coffee to get everything done in time.